


you were the only one

by grimmauld



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Don’t copy to another site, F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 08:36:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18869629
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/grimmauld/pseuds/grimmauld
Summary: Mr. Harrington has announced a field trip to Stark Industries. Peter's demise was now imminent.





	you were the only one

**Author's Note:**

> everyone has to write the field trip au at least once, right? title from navy blues by aisha badru
> 
> find me @hhedric or @parkerptrs on tumblr!! comments and kudos are greatly appreciated <3

So not only was Peter’s life over, it was completely and utterly, irreversibly over. Mr. Harrington had just announced that Peter’s class was taking a field trip to Stark Towers. Stark Towers, also known as the place in which Peter spends three of seven days of the week. Stark Towers, the place he interns at, the place that Tony and many of the other avengers live and spend their time. He was fucked, basically. And that’s not even mentioning the newest resident of the tower. Mr. Stark’s pseudo child. Intern in the lab working alongside Peter in developing Spidey Tech, Nano Tech and generally wreaking havoc on Mr. Stark’s nerves. His poor nerves. Yeah, that new resident. The hot brunet with messy hair and, more often than not, grease stained t-shirts. Harley Keener, object of Peter’s affections. Not that he knows that, of course. Peter’s being subtle. It’s a slight problem, though, given that they share a floor in the tower.

“Dude, your face? It’s bright red. Thinking about Harley the intern again?” MJ teased him.

\---

Later, when he was at the tower, he approached Tony with a vague sense of dread crawling up his spine and lodging in his throat.

“Hey, Mr. Stark?"

“It’s Tony, kid, you can call me Tony. We’re there.”

“Right, uh, Tony? Sir? Well, you see, my class has a field trip and I was wondering if maybe it was your doing? We’re coming here.”

Tony smirked, turning back to the intricate piece of machinery he was fiddling with.

“Get your aunt to sign it, we’ll see you back here early on Monday.”

Peter was dreading Monday. He did what he was told though. Happy drove him to the apartment from the tower. It was Thursday, meaning that he only spent the afternoon at the tower. Friday night he would be back, so he wasn’t too fussed about putting down the whiteboard marker he had wrestled off of Bruce. (He had some equations to write down for Harley to work with, Bruce had the only marker. Could you blame him?)

“Be safe, kid. See you after school tomorrow.” Happy said, gruff fondness tinging his voice as Peter climbed from the car. Peter turned around and saluted the car as it drove away before heading up into the apartment.

“Hey Aunt May! I’m Home!” He called.

“In the kitchen, Pete,” she called back.

Peter dropped his school bag by the front door, bending to pull out a few textbooks. He wasted no time in depositing them onto the dining table before heading in to see his aunt. She was standing by the stove, intermittently stirring a large saucepan. She turned as Peter entered the room and enveloped him into a hug.

“School was good?” She asked, a sentence that would usually be said as a statement reworked in tone to become a question.

“Yeah,” He replied, “I have a form for you to sign. Field trip.” She nodded her assent and told him to dump the form on the counter - she’d sign it after dinner.

They ate quietly, May talking softly about her day as Peter listened and then they swapped.

Later that night, after dinner, after the note was signed, as Peter lay in bed, he thought about how the trip was going to go down. How Harley would react. (Harley didn’t have school on Monday, pupil free day. Tony had planned this quite perfectly.) Things would be mayhem and as much as he was dreading it, there was an inkling of excitement.

\---

The next day was Friday and absolutely nothing of interest happened. Flash was still a dick, MJ and Ned couldn’t look him in the eye without giggling and after school it was much the same. The present Avengers all looked extremely smug and Harley had this cheeky smile on his face whenever they caught each other’s eye. One thing was for sure, though, Flash and everyone else wouldn’t accuse him of fabricating the truth about his internship.

He spent the night in the tower, finally conking out around one in the morning on the Saturday after working late in the lab with Tony, Bruce and Harley. When he woke it was 10 am, the sun was streaming through the slim gap in the curtains. The golden rays glared, lighting a square directly over his eyes. He squirmed, eyes still glued shut with sleep, trying to find a position in which the sun wouldn’t be a complete pain in his ass. He had always been averse to waking up, it was something about the sudden burst of red light behind his eyelids that made him clamber for the soft embrace of sleep. If he wasn’t too busy being the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man he would jump at the chance to become a vampire, he’d fit in rather easily with his deep hatred of the bright mornings. Garlic bread, though, would pose a problem.

Finally he gave up trying to escape the sun, he forced his eyes open and squinted at the sheer level of brightness that was his room. He groped his bedside table, blindly searching for the black rimmed glasses he wore on weekends. Contact lenses were a pain that he wanted to endure as infrequently as possible. Plus, Harley said he looked nice in glasses once and to be quite honest he was riding that high still. He tumbled out of bed and stumbled to the kitchen on the communal floor, blearily glancing at the forms seated at the table. He did a double take. Harley was sitting with a bowl of cereal in front of him, watching him in amusement. Peter looked down at what he was wearing, cheeks flaring a bright red. Was that? Yep. The old NYC top and practically invisible trunks underneath, he also only had one sock on. The other probably came off during the night. They had the atom picture and science puns on them. Courtesy of Ned for his sixteenth birthday, last year.

“H-Harley! You’re awake!” He stammered awkwardly. Harley smirked in response.

“Sure am.”

Well fuck. What gave him the right to be functional and really, really hot at 10 in the morning? It totally wasn’t fair. They were still staring at each other, Peter flushed red and Harley smirking still, when someone cleared their throat to the left of them.

“Interrupting something?” The person said, pressing their hands, one metal and one flesh, down onto the island to gain leverage in standing. Peter whirled around to be faced with Bucky Barnes in an untied dressing gown and boxer briefs. There was a large hickey on his neck and countless smaller ones trailing down from his collar bones to the dip in his hips. Harley turned, took in his appearance and grinned cheekily.

“Are we? You and Cap get cozy last night?”

“Oh, every night,” Barnes said, just as cheeky. He winked at them, took a swig of milk and grabbed a poptart. Then he left as though nothing had happened. The dressing gown slipped down slightly to reveal the beginnings of red fingernail scratches down the length of his back. Definitely cozy.

“Okay Gorgeous _,”_ Harley said suddenly, swinging his attention back to Peter in the same fashion Peter himself swings from building to building - fast and not altogether expected. “You gonna stand there gawping at me or are you gonna come sit?” He pat the stool next to him, then his lap and then the stool again, a sly wink included in the whole ‘let’s flirt with Peter even though we totally don’t mean it’ package. Wait. _Gorgeous?_

This was not helping Peter’s blush.

Harley wasn’t the only one seated at the breakfast bar, though it took Peter an embarrassingly long amount of time to notice. Also sat there was Pepper, Clint and Nat. All three of the adults looked vaguely amused and exasperated at the flirty antics of the young teens. Peter jumped into high gear. He grabbed the last remaining poptart (Brown Sugar Cinnamon, score!) along with a bowl, the milk from the fridge and the box of Froot Loops. Mainly because the Froot Loops box was closest to the fridge. He then took his gathered breakfast items and sat on the stool next to Harley, pointedly ignoring his pout after choosing to not sit on the other’s lap.

“So, Pepper!” He said, loudly trying to distract everyone from the previous going downs. “What do you have on today?”

Pepper smiled and launched into a conversation about how Tony was very unorganised. Boy, didn’t he know it. Tony and Pepper had broken up one and a half years ago when Peter was very new to the whole situation. He was nervous that their split would have an effect on Peter’s internship and the way Tony oversaw his Spider-Man duties. Turns out the split was very amicable, both Pepper and Tony had accidentally fallen for other people. There was no bad blood, they worked even better now than before due to the sheer level of trust that came along with dating someone. Tony began a relationship with The Wizard, Stephen Strange soon after making sure Pepper was one hundred percent okay. Pepper herself began seeing a woman named Carol quickly after Stephen and Tony got together. Carol was lovely, too. She was a pilot, whip smart and good at thinking on the fly. ‘No pun intended,’ Peter thought to himself, allowing a soft snort of laughter to burst through. Turns out Carol was a superhero named Captain Marvel, wonderful to work with her. She was brilliant.

So Pepper and Tony both got their happily ever afters and were stronger as friends and business partners because of it. Stephen was able to convince Tony to go to sleep at a reasonable time when he himself remembered to. Carol and Pepper were absolute powerhouses that, frankly, frightened everyone. Peter was happy that they had forged a big makeshift family for themselves, smaller branches growing from it. Pepper and Carol, Tony, Stephen and Harley, Nat and Clint and Steve and Bucky. They were the only ones who lived full time in the tower, four separate yet intertwined families. The rest came and went as did Peter but it seemed recently many of them had been at the tower a lot more frequently. Carol went away often though, which seemed to make Pepper sad though she powered through. Carol had a best friend and a goddaughter she wanted to see often, but she was with Pepper more often than not nowadays.

After breakfast the five in the kitchen went their own separate ways, notably Peter, who went to actually get dressed. When he left his room after dressing he noticed Harley waiting for him, leant against the wall opposite the door. He shrugged at him and they began walking, Harley trailing Peter to their shared Lab.

“Anything important to work on today?” Peter asked.

“Nah, I’ll probably just be watching you be cute all day.”

It seemed to be Harley’s life goal to leave Peter in a state of permanent blushing. He was succeeding thus far. He stammered out a response as he walked up to the door to the Lab.

“Hey, FRIDAY?” He got out eventually, deciding to just gloss over Harley’s sentence entirely.

“Yes, Peter?” FRIDAY responded.

“Do you know where Mr. Stark is? Did Dr. Strange manage to drag him out of the other Lab last night? I know he and Dr. Banner were still working when Harley and I decided to call it a night.”

“Yes, Peter. Dr. Strange was able to get Tony to leave the Lab this morning at 2:24 AM, Dr. Banner left shortly after you and Harley did, at 2 AM. Currently Tony is still in bed, Dr. Strange has set an alarm for him to be woken at midday today. It’s been a few days since he last got more than three hours of sleep so I’m on strict orders to bypass any attempts at waking him.”

“No problem, FRIDAY, thank you!” He called to the AI as he got himself situated at the station he was last working at. “Hey, Harley, wanna come blow stuff up and call it science?”

“Of course, Gorgeous, be right there.”

There it was again. Gorgeous. Was it bad that Peter loved it so much? Being Gorgeous for Harley. He felt pleased for a solid few minutes before it set in. This was going to be horrible come the day of the field trip. Harley would be at the tower and all signs pointed towards him continuing to call Peter ‘gorgeous’. What was his class going to think? Peter cast the thought from his mind, deciding to worry about it later and instead think of Harley’s warm heat next to him as they worked together on ‘web fluid’. (Read: highly explosive liquids that they were masquerading as web fluid so that FRIDAY could have plausible deniability when they inevitably set off the smoke alarms. They were going to be kind, though, and actually do work until Tony had woken up.)

They worked tirelessly for the next few hours. They had just reached a breakthrough on the sustainability of manufacturing Spidey’s web fluid when they were informed that Tony was awake and had drunk some coffee. Really, they were being so nice to him. Then they set off a reaction and caused a miniature, contained explosion. It was awesome. Tony didn’t think so, apparently, because he burst into the Lab bitching bloody murder about good excuses.

“Calm down, Old Man,” Harley said smoothly. Tony sputtered more, looking as though he couldn’t decide whether to be offended, angry or fond. “We just accidentally blew some fluids up.”

“Accidentally, huh?” Tony replied, disbelieving. Harley smiled angelically, entirely faux innocence. Peter fell for him just that little bit more. You’d think that an eighteen year old wouldn’t be able to look so much like an innocent child, but he did and it made it almost impossible to be angry at him. Tony visibly deflated, also unable to resist the doe eyed look Harley had concocted.

\---

It finally hit Monday. Peter woke up in his bed in the apartment with Aunt May, and wanted to roll over and go straight back to sleep. He could already tell you how this day was going to go. He’d get to school, Flash would be a dick, Ned and MJ would tease him about Harley. They’d get to the tower, Flash would still be a dick but this time it would be specifically about how he was ‘lying about the internship, aren’t you, Penis Parker?’. The class members would get their Tour badges, lowest tier of clearance. Peter would already have his badge, second from the top level, as would Ned and MJ, mid tier clearance. Flash would accuse Peter of prostitution, blackmail and bribery, probably all in the same sentence. The tour guide would be lovely, (hopefully Emma, she was always nice to Peter). They would tour the lower level Lab first, probably, Harley would be sure to be there. He would call Peter ‘Gorgeous’, which admittedly he was only dreading a little bit, Ned and MJ would laugh at them both, Peter would blush. Things would carry on like that and his whole extended family of ragtag superheroes would embarrass him in the most loving way possible. He already knew what was going to happen, so why bother go? His phone chimed next to him. He groaned and contemplated how hard he would have to roll off of the bed in order to fracture his skull.

\---

**sbidey + garagegay**

**_(07:06) garagegay:_ **baby baby baby gorgeous baby sweetheart darling  
**_(07:06) garagegay:_ **i know u and i know ur gonna try and not go today but u gotta!!! for me??!  
**_(07:15) sbidey:_ **i hate u.  
**_(07:16) garagegay:_ **no u don’t <3  
**_(07:16) garagegay:_ **cmon gorgeous pls :)))))  
**_(07:20) garagegay:_ **i’ll let u test ur webs on me ;)  
**_(07:21) sbidey:_ **fuck offff harley!!!!! fine i’ll go!!! but only if u tell me a pet name i can call u  
**_(07:23) garagegay:_ **anything but princess, darlin  
**_(07:23) sbidey:_ **princess it is then  
**_(07:24) sbidey:_ **see u at the tower princess  
**_(07:32) garagegay:_ **...  
**_(07:32) garagegay:_ **fuck

\---

He had made it to class just in time for them to have all started packing up.

“Nice of you to join us, Mr. Parker,” Mr. Harrington said snarkily. Peter smiled apologetically, thinking to himself about the humiliation he was sure to face later in the day, and wandered over to where Ned and MJ were already waiting.

“You alright?” MJ asked quietly. Peter nodded. He didn’t really feel like talking right now.

“Alright, Penis? Scared of the truth coming out at last?” And there it was, just as he had predicted. The inevitable, the unavoidable. Flash was being a dickhead. Ironic, was it not? Considering the wonderful nickname he had so graciously bestowed upon Peter.

Peter decided to just ignore him, for once. The students clambered onto the bus, excited to finally be able to see the iconic and mysterious Stark Industries Tower. The trip wasn’t too long and he managed to pass most of it by goofing off with Ned and MJ and texting Harley. The bus pulled into the station in the SI car-park with a loud and slightly concerning mechanical shudder. The students poured out at a similar speed to molasses off of a spoon, slow and with a high density. Really, it would have been far quicker if they stayed in an orderly line. Actually, you know what, let them try to push and shove. It distracted from his imminent demise. The tour guide was waiting for them in the lobby and, yes! It was Emma!

“Hey guys! If you could give me your attention please! The tour will start in just a moment, though first you guys have to get into a line so that you can collect your badges.” She called out.

The students clambered to do what she asked, they were all so excited about the tour that even the class clowns were on their best behaviours.

“Okie Dokie! My name is Emma, I’ll be your tour guide for the day! One by one I’m going to hand you a badge, when you get your badge please proceed through the metal detectors you can see in front of you and wait beyond the gate. Please don’t be alarmed by the voice that will announce you! That’s just FRIDAY, the building’s AI.”

“Isn’t Iron Man literally a man in a giant metal suit? Why does he have metal detectors?” One student asked.

“Only visitors such as tour groups and reporters really have to go through there. Lower level employees have to as well, The Avengers themselves and the other live-in residents of the tower don’t have to go through.”

The student nodded in understanding and walked through the detector. _Beep, Green._ “Guided tour attendee, clearance level blue.” came the automated of FRIDAY. Students around him burst into whispers.

Peter, Ned and MJ were at the back of the line, deliberately done so because they wanted to cause the least amount of ruckus about their badges as possible. Peter decided to just go through the metal detectors. All of the things on him were designed not to set them off. Now was as good a time as any to test his tech, right? Ned and MJ still had to, anyway. MJ went first. _Beep, Green._ “Michelle Jones, clearance level white. Frequent visitor, welcome back Ms. Jones.” MJ rolled her eyes.

“I told you FRIDAY, it’s MJ.”

“Apologies, Ms. MJ,” FRIDAY replied cheekily. (Well, as cheeky as an AI can get.)

Ned went next. _Beep, Green._ “Ned Leeds, clearance level white. Frequent visitor, welcome back Mr. Leeds.” Ned smiled and decided not to call FRIDAY out on calling him Mr. Leeds.

Then it was Peter’s turn. He heard the thundering of running footsteps just before he stepped through. He looked up to see Harley with his hands planted on his knees, out of breath, a group of students staring at him in confusion. Peter looked up to the ceiling and counted to ten. MJ smirked.

“Gorgeous! What’re you doing here?” He called with a grin resembling the size of the cheshire cat’s. He was still panting.

“Oh fuck off, Harley, as if you don’t know already,” Peter scowled, the resident blush that warranted the nickname of ‘Gorgeous’ painting his cheeks. He could feel the eyes of everyone in his class land on him.

“Peter! Language!” Mr. Harrington admonished from the other side of the gate. Peter rolled his eyes and stepped through the metal detector.

 _Beep, Green._ “Peter Parker, clearance level gold. Personal Intern of Tony Stark, welcome back Peter, your bedroom and Lab have been left exactly as they were Sunday afternoon.”

Well, that’s not what FRIDAY usually said. So who was the culprit, Mr. Stark or Harley? Or both? FRIDAY never usually mentions his Lab or bedroom because, well, why would she? His classmates were staring at him with identical expressions on their face. He couldn’t work out if it was envy or awe. Was that conceited to think? Probably.

“What the hell?” Flash exclaimed. “How did you get it to do that? Did you hack the thing?”

“Firstly, _she’s_ almost impossible to hack, secondly Peter worked for his place here and he deserves it so I’d like to kindly ask you to shut your trap,” Harley cut in. Flash looked almost murderous, wheeling around to stare at Harley.

“Excuse me? Who do you think you are?”

“Hi! I’m Harley Keener, I’m an intern here and I have an even higher clearance than Peter, who, by the way, has the second top most clearance level in this whole building.”

“Uh, yeah. Like I’d believe that,” Flash scoffed. Harley stared him down.

“FRI,” He said, sickeningly sweet, fake saccharine dripping like poison from his tongue. “Could you list off the clearance levels and their colours and then tell the class here what my clearance is?”

“Of course, Mr. Keener. The top most clearance level is Red, held by Tony Stark, Pepper Potts and young Mr. Keener here, along with a few select others. Next down is Gold, Mr. Parker’s clearance level, alongside Captain Marvel, Bruce Banner and some others. Then there is Silver level, the level for The Avengers themselves, those that remain, that is. Then it’s White, the clearance that frequent visitors such as Ms. MJ and Mr. Leeds hold. Next is Black for the higher level employees, then Pink for lower level employees, including your tour guide today. Next level is Blue, which the majority of you here today are holding. The lowest level is Yellow, which is entirely for reporters and paparazzi. The blue and yellow clearance cards expire after you leave the building, so please make no attempts to sell them to outside individuals.” FRIDAY rattled off all the information dutifully, all while Harley maintained eye contact with Flash.

Flash looked suitably ashamed of himself. MJ and Ned high fived, Peter glanced at Harley and smiled gratefully.

“Okay, kids! Now that that’s all over we can continue along with our tour!” Emma said cheerily, trying to mask how frazzled she was. The group turned to her and waited expectantly. She took them to Floor 3 where there was a museum of the avengers set up.

“Here’s how the day has been set up; first we’ll go to the museum, then we’ll tour around the gym and the labs, after that we’ve organised a Q & A with The Avengers, most of them will be present but there may be a few missing.” They were walking along a corridor as she spoke, “You guys have an allocated time slot of half an hour perusing the museum now! Go wild but please don’t touch anything!” She called. The class split off, hurriedly walking to their favourite Avenger’s setup. No one was paying attention to Peter, so he didn’t feel as on edge when Harley sidled up to him.

“Hey Gorgeous,” He said softly, wrapping his arms around Peter in a short but firm hug.

“Princess,” Peter replied with a small nod of his head and a mischievous glint in his eye. Harley groaned softly.

“I’m really regretting my life choices right now. Why did you decide on Princess?”

“Well,” Peter smirked, “Firstly because you told me not to.” Harley rolled his eyes. Peter’s voice softened,

“And secondly because I’ll always be here to save you.”

Harley smiled at him and pulled him back into a hug. They broke apart reluctantly, Harley running his hand down Peter’s arm to intertwine their fingers.

“C’mon, let’s check out the museum!”

Peter rolled his eyes but still allowed Harley to drag him to the Spider-Man exhibit. His own exhibit. Of fucking course.

“Harley!” He hissed out a warning. “Not this one!” Harley winked at him cheekily. Safe to say he spent a solid ten minutes looking at the Spider-Man exhibit with him.

“Okay, kids!” Emma called out fifteen minutes later, “Time to move on.”

The group followed Emma out of the museum wing and down yet another corridor toward the elevator bank. They stepped into the lifts, half with Emma and half with Mr. Harrington. Both groups spilled out of the small space at roughly the same time.

“We’re now on a floor that many of The Avengers frequent, on this level you’ll find many of the labs and the sparring gym along with a few other rooms. If we’re lucky we may just be able to watch some of the team spar.” Emma said, her peppy tour guide voice sounding somewhat shrill. Harley was still tagging along with them. The group followed like ducklings as she brought them to the gym. Though, in all honesty, they were less of an orderly, organised line and more a chaotic blob of teenagers. As they entered Peter shut his eyes, not quite ready to face who would inevitably be sparring today.

“Queens!” Yep, there it was. Captain America, Steve Rogers. The pain in the ass, little shit of an sort-of-uncle to Peter. Peter forced himself to open his eyes, MJ, Ned and Harley were all laughing at him quietly in the background.

“Hey, Cap,” Peter replied, embracing his want for death calmly and with grace. On the inside he was flipping his shit.

Emma smiled, a little unsure of herself. “Um, We-We’ve been given the opportunity to watch a sparring session today and if we’re lucky we’ll be taught some basic moves. There will be no sparring between you and any of The Avengers, but they'll be teaching you how to defend yourselves in times of danger.”

“That’s right,” Steve said, the All American Voice turned on. “Today it’s going to be myself and Black Widow sparring for your enjoyment.” He smiled graciously and turned to where Natasha was waiting for him on the mat.

They made eye contact, circling each other for one turn before Nat rushed him. From then it was fast-paced kicks and hits flying from both of them. They didn’t seem to even be tiring. Finally Nat landed a kick that sent Steve stumbling back and from there she was able to knock him down. She nodded to herself and offered a hand to help him up. When they were both standing once again they turned to the students watching.

“So that’s a sparring match,” Natasha said. “Emma, what’s the time? When do you have to be at the labs to stay on schedule?”

“We have twenty minutes left before we should head to the labs,” Emma replied dutifully.

Cap and Nat split them into two groups and spent the remaining twenty minutes slowly going over some basic defense. They quickly taught Peter’s class how to throw a punch and then they went over something a little more interesting.

“Let’s talk kidnappings,” Steve said. “Okay, when you get kidnapped,” (Not if, when.) “When you get kidnapped and you’re grabbed from behind in a bear hug like position here’s how to get out. Nat, would you mind?” Natasha quickly moved and situated herself in front of The Cap. They then acted out the maneuver that the grabbed individual should remember and do. First you drop into a squat like position, legs apart, and pull both of your arms as far forward as possible to make them break their grip. After that you would bring one elbow into their stomach as hard as you could and one elbow to their face. You’d then generally have enough time to run to a populated area where you start shouting ‘Fire’ to make it harder for your attempted kidnapper. That doesn’t really matter for Peter at all, but it was important to know anyway.

After the demonstrations they were sent out of the gym. Steve kept throwing playful glances into his direction. Basically, Peter had no idea what was going to happen at the Q & A but he wasn’t too keen on finding out. The group of students followed Emma, keeping the chatter to a dull roar as they walked along to the conference room. They entered and immediately a hush fell over his peers. At the front of the room, sat behind a table equipped with microphones were the majority of The Avengers and a few other important, cool people. From left to right, sat at the table there was Black Widow, Hawkeye, Captain America (and The Winter Soldier), The Falcon, Captain Marvel, Pepper Potts, The Hulk, Dr. Strange and then there was the man himself. Tony Stark, Iron Man.

Emma directed them all to take seats in front of the assembly of heroes in front of them, Peter beelined for the back row as the rest clambered for the front. MJ, Ned and Harley followed him.

Tony leaned forward and spoke into the microphone, “I’m assuming you all know us and you all know why you’re here. We’ll be taking questions for the next hour or so. So, shoot. Ask anything.”

That last statement was definitely a mistake, almost every single hand shot up. Tony ignored all of them.

“Actually, I have a question for you first. What’s the kid doing with you?”

Everyone was confused, except, of course, one Harley Keener. He stood.

“Because I like to tease him, obviously. Gotta be as annoying as a can.”

Him being Peter. He was kind of growing annoyed at the stares from his classmates he was getting. It was setting him on edge, making him frustrated and snappy. He tried to breathe through the swelling angry emotions. This wasn’t his fault, it wasn’t Harley’s, or Tony’s or MJ or Ned’s. It was no ones fault, he just had to stop caring so much.

Peter rolled his eyes. Hard. Harley made his way up to the front and dragged a chair to be sat next to Tony. And then he leaned back in his seat and pulled out his phone. Peter felt his own phone buzz almost instantly.  He ignored it.

“Okay, you in the red hoodie?” Clint said, dragging the focus back to the Q & A.

“I was wondering if you had any inter-team romance that you were comfortable sharing?” Oh, that was Alice. She was always super invested in the relationship gossip around the halls, not surprising that she was asking that question.

The seated Avengers looked around the table at each other, certain couples giving indication that they were okay. Tony locked eyes with Peter and sort of subtly jerked his head toward Harley with an eyebrow raised. Peter flushed. He looked over at Harley and saw that the other boy was also looking at him a devious smirk painted on his face.

“Well, Nat and I are together,” Clint said, finally.

“I’m not comfortable stating,” Bruce said.

“I’m sure everyone is aware of my relationship with Bucky,” Steve said, Bucky nodded and shifted minutely closer to him.

“I’m in a relationship with Carol,” Pepper said, seemingly closing off the question.

There was another pause, they were hankering to move on. Harley made a big show of turning off his phone and pulling Tony’s mic toward him.

“I, for one, think that Spider-Man is _gorgeous._ We aren’t dating though, not yet.” He winked at them and sat back, pulling his phone out once more.

MJ and Ned slowly turned to face him, both of them had the look of ‘ _and you still think he doesn’t like you like that?’_ incredulity written all over their faces. The rest of his classmates were whispering, no doubt trying to figure out why this teenager was trying to date who they thought was a grown man.

“... Thanks Harley,” Tony said slowly, looking very much like he was trying not to roll his eyes.

“Next question?” Nat asked, looking at her companions.

Peter finally decided to check his phone after it buzzed twice more in quick succession.

**sbidey + garagegay**

**_(13:19) garagegay:_ **well this is going to be fun  
**_(13:23) garagegay:_ **;)  
**_(13:23) garagegay:_ **u sure are gorgeous.

The Q & A progressed, the questions staying vastly normal. After around an hour they were finished. The student’s school day had been cut short so that they could bus to the school and leave immediately. This was so that they didn't have to sit through the final half an hour of the day. Peter approached Mr. Harrington.

“Excuse me, sir? I was wondering if I would be able to stay here rather than go back to the school?”

Tony walked down off the stage where the other members of the superhero team were and stood behind Peter.

“I’m listed as one of his guardians on the school records, I’m allowing this.”

Mr. Harrington nodded his assent. Harley meandered over with Ned and MJ in tow, bouncing up to Peter and wrapping him up in a hug from behind

“You staying with me, Gorgeous?”

Peter flushed, “Harley!” He hissed, glancing back at his teacher standing awkwardly in front of the group. The other students were trying to inconspicuously watch them. After all, to them Peter was a nobody who lied about knowing the Avengers to gain popularity. Now that he was proven to be telling the truth they were all so very interested.

“Can you stop fucking calling me that in front of these people!”

Harley let go of Peter, stepping back and looking shocked, confused and more than a little bit sad.

“O-Oh. Okay, I’m- I’m sorry” Harley muttered, backtracking quickly away from Peter. Fuck.

Peter glanced around at his friends and at Tony, helplessly. His eyes were screaming ‘What do I do?’ but his mouth wasn’t making any noises. He fucked up. He didn’t mean to snap at him. He really, really didn’t mean to. He never wanted to make Harley feel bad. He loved him- Oh. _Oh._ He _loved him._ Properly loved. It was then that Peter realised he was entirely fucked. He just knew Harley was _it_ for him. He loved him, and now Harley was hurt and it was his fault.

\---

It was bordering on sunset. Peter was sitting on a rooftop watching out for trouble as he thought through the day. Harley. He and Harley had ended the whole Field Trip Disaster in Peter being a dick to him and now he wasn’t sure where to go. It was entirely his fault, Peter knew this and so he really needed to make it up to the other boy. He hated this, the whole fighting his… what even was Harley to him? Peter was in love with Harley, that much was obvious. They flirted a lot. _You alright there, Princess? Oh, of course, Gorgeous, I just got distracted by your ass._ Yeah. Flirting, that was something Peter had become rather proficient in. He was seventeen, it’s natural for him to be courting. But then they argued. Badly. Whispered words aiming to pierce their carefully crafted armour. He had to fix it. So naturally, him being a Gen-Z, he pulled out his phone and texted.

**sbidey + garagegay**

**_(18:05) sbidey:_ **hey harls?  
**_(18:06) sbidey:_ **meet me at central park gate in 10?  
**_(18:06) sbidey:_ **please princess. i’m sorry

There was no response. He found a nice roof within one-web swinging distance from the main entrance of the park and just waited. It was almost twenty past six when he saw him. He watched Harley as he arrived, the sun hitting the horizon line and bathing all of what Peter could see in a soft orange hue. It was casting a beautiful wash of colour over Harley’s face. He looked ethereal, the orange halo highlighting his face in that perfect golden hour tinge. He was beautiful, but not only that, he was pretty. Even from the top of the roof Peter could see the glow on his skin. Harley stood in front of the gate and glanced around before checking his phone. Peter swung down from the roof and stood in front of Harley, full Spider-Man costume on.

“Hi.”

“Hey,” Peter replied. “I wasn’t sure if you would come.”

“Well. Here I am. What did you want, Peter?” Not Gorgeous. Peter. Harley hadn’t called him his actual name in almost a week. It was always Gorgeous, or sweetheart, or baby, or darling, or _Gorgeous._ You never really expect a name to hurt so much. Or the lack of a name.

Peter stepped forward, “Can I?” Harley nodded his consent.

Peter reacted by wrapping his left arm around Harley’s waist. “Grab on.” Harley did. Peter released a string from his web-shooters, swinging the two of them onto the roof that Peter was on whilst waiting. He set Harley down and turned to face him, and then he began to speak.

“I’m just- I’m sorry, Harls. Really. I am, I love you so much and I don’t want this argument to be the end of us. You’re too important, I love you, I’m sorry.”

Harley stared at him blankly for a few long, slow, anguishing seconds. “Is that all you have to say?”

Peter bit his lip under the mask, trying to quell the tears that threatened well up. He nodded once, slowly.

“I’m sorry too,” Harley said eventually, as they were still stood in a stagnated faceoff. “I think I may have blown things out of proportion. And, well, I love you, Gorgeous. Truly and properly love you.”

 _Gorgeous._ Peter looked around quickly and pulled his mask up over his mouth and nose when he saw the coast was clear. He surged forward, connecting their lips. Harley reacted quickly, returning the kiss with enthusiasm and vigour.

The sun was almost set now, the beauty of the sky lost on the two kissing teens.

**Author's Note:**

> find me @hhedric or @parkerptrs on tumblr!! comments and kudos are greatly appreciated <3


End file.
